


Corruption and Shutdown

by KanoNavi



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Kinda, M/M, Wanderer/Apostasia's POV, can be seen as romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-03 23:21:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14007060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KanoNavi/pseuds/KanoNavi
Summary: After losing the companionship of Anpassen and Executor, Wanderer begins to lose himself to Henir.





	Corruption and Shutdown

It had been a shock when Wanderer had discovered that there were other Celestials in Elrios. They had all been christened by the goddess Ishmael with the holy name of Ainchase Ishmael, but they could have been three completely different people. Executor, who was always stoic, to an extent at least, and forever loyal to the goddess' mission. Anpassen, who had decided to study human emotions in order to understand them for himself. And Wanderer, who had become corrupted by the chaos of Henir and was slowly withering away.

Anpassen was one of the best companions Wanderer could ever hope for. For one thing, he never flinched away, as others would do, when he saw Wanderer's marks of corruption. Anpassen was always cheerful and smiling, and trying to keep people happy as best as he could. Executor, on the other hand, wasn't bad, per se, but Wanderer could always see the discomfort in his eyes when they were in the same vicinity, though whether it was from Executor's own fear of knowing that he could have shared Wanderer's fate, or whether it was disgust at seeing a holy being tarnished as Wanderer was. Anpassen noticed this as well, but he never brought it up. The three of them were incredibly close, and rarely fought, until things began to change.

Something was happening to all of them. Executor was becoming distant as he honed his skills with his blades of light. Anpassen was getting better at controlling his emotions and El-based powers, and beginning to become more grounded. And Wanderer, much to his own disgust, was improving in manipulating the powers of the abyss in his favor. Arguments were happening more often than before. Executor seemed constantly irritable and would sometimes lash out if anyone tried to talk to him. Even Anpassen, who had a great amount of patience, was starting to get fed up. Wanderer could feel the tension between the two building, but he didn't know how to stop it. Eventually, after they had settled on Altera island, something snapped.

Wanderer didn't even remember what the argument had been about. All he could remember was shouting and the air crackling with frustration and sadness emanating from Anpassen's Mut eid, to the point where it seemed that things could physically explode. Then two doors were slammed and Executor and Anpassen were both gone. Wanderer was left alone with only the voice of Henir whispering in his ears.

 

Months passed, and Wanderer was getting worse. The voice of Henir was getting louder, and it was harder to resist what it offered, with Executor and Anpassen no longer there to keep him in reality. He could feel the corruption of his left eye and arm spreading farther across his body. He felt exhausted and sick constantly, but he still took requests from the people of Altera in some empty effort to keep routine in his life.

He had been staying in the village of Feita for two weeks. It was a nice town, but Wanderer never noticed, as he may as well have been dead on his feet. He went through routines with no awareness. Get a request, go to the shrine, defeat some demons, return, and collapse for the night, consciousness dead to the world. He kept thinking to himself, that maybe one day, he could die in one of those dungeons, and finally be able to rest.

 

At last, Wanderer felt like he had finally had enough. He looked up at the massive iron gates of the Underground Chapel and was sure. He was sure that he was not going to walk out of that place alive. On some strange impulse, he pulled his hood down and removed the bandages from his left eye, letting them fall to the ground, before unwrapping his left arm and letting those bandages fall to the ground as well. He wasn't completely sure what drove him to do this, but he still stepped forward, pushing open the door and entering the darkness of the chapel.

By the time he reached the Amethyst monster that contained the core that he needed, Wanderer was at his true limit. He felt his feet leave the ground, and faintly heard the _'thud'_   of his body slamming into a wall, and he fell to the ground, after being knocked back by the Amethyst's attack. _Why do I continue get back up every time I get knocked down?_ He felt a stabbing pain in his chest, enough to make his sight blur. _Why don't I just give in and free myself from the pain?_ Everything was turning white. _Why do I still believe that they'll come back for me?_ He felt the hilt of a large weapon in his hands, and he took hold of it.

'Wanderer' looked up at the smoky creature floating before him. The voice of Henir was gone, and for a split second, everything was silent. Then the Amethyst moved, and 'Wanderer' raised his hands, holding a magnificent scythe, made from darkness itself. As he swung the scythe at the monster, he screamed, screamed until his voice was broken, screamed, " _JUST LEAVE AND LET ME DIE IN PEACE!"_

The monster was dead. Why had he killed it? Didn't he want it to kill him? His body felt heavier than lead. 'Wanderer' looked down and saw his legs were coated in pitch black, all the way down to his ankles. His left arm was completely corrupted, and a line of darkness was trailing up his right. He looked down at his chest and saw a core shaped like Henir's eye embedded there like a parasite attached to its prey. As he looked at the floor, locks of long hair that had previously been tied up in a braid slipped over his shoulder and hung in his line of sight. 'Wanderer' had finally been broken. Henir had won, and he had lost.

As he looked up, a light appeared at the entrance to the room, he could see two figures standing in the doorway, one of them seemed to point, saying something that 'Wanderer' couldn't hear. _They're going to kill me, aren't they? I've become a demon myself, after all. Finally, I can leave this world._

However, some kind of stubbornness pushed him to try to straighten up and face this new threat, but his body, if it could even be called that anymore, gave out, and he fell to the ground, lost to the world. The last thing he could see was the two figures running toward him, bringing their light closer.

 

"Are you positive you know where town is? It's been two hours already!"

"Yes, of course I do! I-I'm sure..."

"When you say it like that, you don't sound convincing at all!"

'Wanderer' could hear voices. They sounded vaguely familiar, but he wasn't sure why. He opened his eyes slightly and noticed that he was being carried in someone's arms. Strange. The air around him was buzzing softly, but in a gentle way. He'd felt this before as well, from Anpassen and his Rein eid. Who could these people be? And why hadn't they killed him yet?

"See, there's the town! I told you that I knew where I was going, Erbluhen, but you didn't believe me!"

"Yeah, whatever, Arme. At least we're here now. Let's go back to the inn so Wanderer can rest."

 _Wait, they know who I am? But how?_ 'Wanderer continues to ponder as 'Arme' cut in with how celestials didn't need rest, followed by 'Erbluhen' blowing off his remarks.

"Who are you two?" He finally asked.

"Ack! Oh gosh, you're awake! Geez, you scared me, Wanderer!" 'Erbluhen' who seemed to be the one carrying 'Wanderer', jumped slightly before responding with a light laugh.

"Oh, wait, we look quite different now, so he probably doesn't recognize us." 'Arme' cut in.

"Oh, that's true... Well, just hold tight for a sec, we're almost to the inn!"

 

"Alrighty! So... I'm Erbluhen Emotion and this here is Arme Thaumaturgy! You can call him Arme and me Erblu, though Arme doesn't call me that because he's a stick in the mud." Erbluhen cheerfully introduced himself and his companion, as Apos sat on the bed in their inn room with the two Celestials sitting in chairs across from him.

Upon closer examination, 'Wanderer' could see a strong resemblance to his old friends, with Erblu's cheerful smile and personality, along with the familiar Rein eid floating around his head and Arme's slightly grumpy expression, although the two looked completely different now, especially with their hair, Erblu's bring completely grey, and Arme's being bright blue.

"You _are_ Lofty: Wanderer, are you not?" Arme asked, as if he somehow still couldn't believe that 'Wanderer' really was the Wanderer they had known.

"You guys are... Anpassen and Executor..." It wasn't exactly phrased like a question, but Erblu still nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh, you really are Wanderer! Thank the goddess! I found Arme a few weeks ago and we made up for our argument, the whole thing was so stupid after all, and we've been hoping to run into you at some point. But... I guess we were too late... In a way..." Erblu trailed off, but 'Wanderer' knew by now that almost his entire body was corrupted. He must have looked truly grotesque, to put it _lightly_.

"Erbluhen insisted that we rescue you, although it seems like you've truly turned your back on the goddess by now..." Arme scowled, clearly disapproving. 'Wanderer' looked down at his hands. He grimaced, knowing that Arme was right. He had abandoned the goddess of his own free will, or at least, he had been too weak to fight back against this chaos that had taken over his body.

"Arme, that's too harsh!" Erblu hissed, but 'Wanderer' shook his head.

"Arme is right. That's why... You should call me Apostasia now... You can't really call me Wanderer anymore and... It really would be accurate, wouldn't it...?" He refused to look up to meet the two pairs of eyes staring at him, one pair blue and one pair green. He refused to watch as those eyes quickly clouded over.

"A-Apostasia... Apos... I'm.... We're... We're sorry we couldn't help you. If we hadn't left... Maybe this wouldn't have happened..." As Erblu softly spoke, the air in the room became heavier. Apos finally looked up to see that Erblu's face was red and scrunched up and that he had shining trails running down his cheeks. The shining yellow light of Rein had changed into the blue light of Wille. Erblu was crying. Apos had seen humans cry before, but he had never had someone cry over him like this. Anpassen had never really cried, at least not in an honest way like this. He had only cried when his eids were out of control and making his emotions go wild. But Erblu was clearly _distraught_.

"Wait, please... Please don't cry... Over me... This isn't... Your fault..." Apos said, reaching his hand out towards Erblu, as if to comfort him, but before he could react, Erblu was in Apos' arms with his arms around his neck, sobbing. Erblu kept repeating, "I'm sorry Apos, I'm so sorry for this."

Apos had seen humans 'hug' each other before, but did that work in situations like this? Either way, he dicided to try, and somewhat awkwardly wrapped his arms around Erblu, as he continued to cry. Arme, meanwhile, had stood up and walked over to sit next to Apos.

"I... I'm also sorry about this... I know I was always harsh, and that I still am, but... I never hated you... And I... Erbluhen always says that I'm terrible at communicating, and he's right, even if I never fully admit it... I don't think about what I'm saying before I say it... But I'm sorry about this. Erbluhen has always talked about how he wanted to save you once we found you again... I've been waiting to find you as well, if only to apologize, not to antagonize you like I did..." Arme said as his eyes flicked around the room, as if looking at Apos would cause him to break down just as Erblu had, though that was something that Apos couldn't possibly imagine.

"It's... It's okay..." Apos replied, and Arme finally made eye contact and gave something that resembled a small smile before he looked away, clearly unsure what else to do in this situation.

It took quite a few minutes for Erblu to be calm enough to properly talk, but when he was alright, the three Celestials talked and decided that they would work together as a team again.

"We've gotten ourselves more figured our by now, right? I mean, we've gotta be! So we can't let a petty argument separate us again!" Erblu was saying.

"Yes, of course." Arme agreed.

"But Apos, maybe there's still a way for us to save you! The goddess would never give up on anyone completely! We just need a find a way to let you hear her voice again!" Erblu continued on, with an excited grin.

Apos couldn't believe that it was possible to fix his situation, but he still nodded, if only to appease Erblu for the time being.

"I am also willing to help you try to find the goddess again, even if it means going along with Erbluhen's meddling." Arme added.

"Perfect! I... I'm so glad all three of us are back together again... after so long." Erblu had a soft smile on his face, and even Arme looked happy, by his own standards of 'happiness', at least.

Apos had no idea why he had a tight feeling in his chest. He hadn't really felt much of anything but exhaustion and sickness since Anpassen and Executor left on that day, but now, he felt liquid pooling in his eyes and escaping to roll down his cheeks, just as he had seen with Erblu less than an hour earlier. Was he crying? _Why_ was he crying? He wasn't 'sad'. It was actually quite the opposite.

"Oh no, don't cry please!" Erblu jumped up in a panic, as Arme rolled his eyes, seeming to mutter "Not again..." under his breath, but Apos shook his head, trying to convey that everything was okay.

"No... It's just..... Thank you... For coming back..." Apos whispered, as, for the first time in months, a smile flitted across his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Just an idea that I had going. I know this fandom is small, but I hope everyone likes this anyways!


End file.
